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Bouncing to the Beatles Breeds Benevolent Babies
Pacific Standard: As part of our ongoing inquiry into the evolutionary origins of music, we’ve noted a line of research that links altruistic behavior with synchronized sounds. A study from England found eight- to 11-year-olds who made music together were also more compassionate than their peers. Another from Germany found four-year-olds who had sung and marched together were more likely to help one another pick up spilled marbles. New Canadian research presents further evidence of this dynamic—and finds it applies at a much younger age.
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Why Names Are So Easy to Forget
The Atlantic: Once, at a party, I was introduced to a friend of a friend. We shook hands, I told her my name, she told me hers. Then she did something that I was ever so grateful for. "Hang on," she said. "Can you say your name again? I wasn't really listening." She saved me from having to later—possibly even at the same party—sheepishly admit that I, too, had already forgotten her name. An informal poll of fellow Atlantic staffers confirmed my suspicion that this is something that happens to even the most kind and conscientious among us. No sooner does someone utter the most fundamental factoid about themselves than the information flees our brains forever.
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Can Where the Wild Things Are Teach Kids Empathy?
New York Magazine: Kids who spend their early years lost in the imaginary worlds of children’s fiction —Where the Wild Things Are, Corduroy,Beatrix Potter’s stories of Peter Rabbit — may be getting more out of the stories than pure entertainment. Narrative fiction seems to make young children more empathetic, according to research presented at this weekend’s American Psychological Association convention in San Francisco. Fiction, of course, lets you see the world through another set of eyes, and that isn’t lost on young children, argued York University psychologist Raymond Mar.
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Children’s Drawings May Indicate Later Intelligence
How 4-year-old children draw pictures of a child is an indicator of intelligence at age 14, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Researchers studied 7,752 pairs of identical and non-identical twins (a total of 15,504 children) from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the UK, and found that the link between drawing and later intelligence seemed to be influenced by genes. At the age of 4, children were asked by their parents to complete a ‘Draw-a-Child’ test, i.e. draw a picture of a child.
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American Philosophical Society Announces Grants
The American Philosophical Society has announced two grants for the 2014–2015 school year. The Franklin Research Grant is a collection of small grants to scholars intended to support the cost of research leading to publication in all areas of knowledge. The Franklin program is particularly designed to help meet the cost of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses. Applicants are expected to have a doctorate or to have published work of doctoral character and quality.
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The Good Judgment Project Seeks Participants
The Good Judgment Project is a 4-year research study begun in mid-2011 and organized as part of a government-sponsored forecasting tournament. The GJP is looking for people around the world who might value participating in a massive forecasting tournament, either as question generators, as forecasters, or as both. To volunteer as a forecaster, click here. Those who would rather serve as subject matter experts and assist with identifying the key properties of forecasting questions can complete the survey here. The tournament will begin on August 20. Forecasting Tournaments: Tools for Increasing Transparency and Improving the Quality of Debate Philip E. Tetlock, Barbara A.
